With hacking arrest, quiet Hamilton-area street a place of international intrigue

In the middle of the well-heeled Meadowlands community in Ancaster, a young man lived alone in a large, three-bedroom house. He kept to himself, neighbours said, except for a few house parties a year and the times when he’d parade one of many high-end, colourful cars through the quiet subdivision streets.

This week, that street in tony Ancaster, a Hamilton suburb, became a place of international intrigue.

Karim Baratov is shown in a photo from his Instagram account. (Instagram/Canadian Press)

On Wednesday, neighbours learned the flashy man they had puzzled about, Karim Baratov, was a target of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into international data hacking.

They learned the news just as about a dozen news trucks and reporters rolled up in the slushy snow. Some neighbours declined to talk to reporters, saying they didn’t want to go anywhere near a story involving Russian spies.

Baratov was arrested the day before, so the neighbours saw the police cars, but Wednesday, many of them learned for the first time what their neighbour was alleged to have been up to inside.

The United States announced charges Wednesday against a dual Canadian-Kazakh national, two Russian intelligence officers and a fourth man, who lives in the U.S. but has ties to Russia, accusing them of a massive data breach at Yahoo that affected at least a half billion user accounts.

The hack targeted the email accounts of Russian and U.S. officials, Russian journalists, and employees of financial services and other businesses, officials said.

Eventful week on Chambers Drive

On the street where the Canadian man lived, neighbours said Wednesday he didn’t talk to them, but he was hard to miss. The street’s giant homes in shades of beige and brown in one of Hamilton’s most sought-after communities for wealthy families are not the typical starter home for a 22-year-old.

That location, along with social media accounts showing Baratov with the fancy cars and spreading handfuls of $100 bills, painted a picture of a guy eager to show off his wealth.

On Monday, they saw a for-sale sign go up in front of his house. (An online listing announces an asking price of $929,000.)